Marked [postponed]

Chapter Nine

"Hey Sage, come sit with us!" Petra yelled, waving me over. I brought my lunch over to the table, and sat next to Petra. The table consisted of me, Petra, Zora, and Matt. I looked at my lunch: a bright red apple, a swarm of various fried insects (I'm not eating that), and what appeared to be mashed potatoes on fire. And to wash it all down: a canteen full of blood.

"Can I sit with you all?" Carter asked, looking as if he was a lost puppy.
"Sure." I replied, letting him sit on the other side of me. I continued to stare at my lunch, trying to figure out how I was going to eat my lunch.
"It's not as bad as it looks." Petra smiled, giggling at me.
"But uh.... My mashed potatoes are on FIRE." I muttered.
"It looks menacing, but it's really good." She told me.
"I think I'll pa-" I couldn't finish my sentence, for she shoved a spoonful of the flaming mashed potatoes. The taste was actually pretty good: the fire tasted like a mixture of hot sauce and ketchup. The only problem was the fire burnt my tongue and the back of my throat. I immediately grab the bottle of blood and chugged it. They all laughed, eating their mashed potatoes with ease. The blood quenched my throat, and made my mouth burn a little less.

"So... Have you ever killed someone, Sage?" Petra asked, taking a bite out of her crimson apple.
"N-no. Why? Am I supposed to?" I asked. The four of my new friends giggled at my response, not even trying to hold back from making me feel bad.
"Well, at this point, all of us have. You could ask anyone in this room, and they'll tell you how they accidentally ripped someone's head off. That's how all of us end up here. We end up revealing our powers to the public, and demons that hide amongst ordinary people send us here." Carter explained.
"But how do demons know that we are supposed to be here?" I asked, puzzled.
"Well, there is one thing that all sub-demons have in common: we are all marked." Zora answered. They all reveal the plus signs engraved into their necks, and smiled. I put my hand on my neck, feeling the outline of the plus sign.
"So welcome to hell, Sage. We hope you get used to torturing people, and toying with their souls." Carter told me in a serious tone, smiling.

"Gee, thanks." I laughed. "You know, this place isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's not so scary." I smiled. "Not even Petra is scary." I laughed.
"What do you mean?! Im scary!" She yelled with multiple peoples' voices at once, which was one of the most terrifying things I had ever heard. I shivered for a moment from the demented voice, and she smiled.
"That's what I thought." She snickered.

"So... After you're done schooling. You get to go one quests to torture and kill humans?" I questioned, wanting more to be explained to me.
"Yeah. You get a couple of quests here and there in school though. They're like test runs." Matt responded.
"Like what? What are some of the test run examples?"
"Well, things like trying to get someone to kill another person, getting them to commit suicide when their lives are bad, stuff like that."
I could see Petra wince at the word "suicide". I then realized that Petra might have killed herself. What did she go through to have killed herself? She is a nice girl, she's seems to be really smart, she seems to get along with people easily, she's... Beautiful. But knowing her, she probably wouldn't date a newbie who can't even eat their own lunch without having problems.

"That's awful." I frowned, feeling bad for the innocent people that I would probably have to end up trying to persuade them to end their lives.
"Well, it's Hell, Sage. You know how it is here." Zora reminded me.
"Right."

We finished our lunches, and left them for the janitors to clean. I couldn't imagine having to be a janitor for all of my eternity. That must suck.

"Hey, I'll see you later for your sword fighting lesson." Petra nudged me, as we walked out of the cafeteria.
"Cool." I smiled, waving at her. I was actually looking forward to it: Petra seems to actually be really nice.

I can't wait.